Need for Speed Underground Walkthrough & Strategy Guide

Published: Jan 12, 2003

Driving
Basics

While from the surface, Need for Speed Underground may wear the fa¿ade
of a simple, no-nonsense racer, extended play of the game reveals a decidedly
unique and challenging driving system. Holding firm on the gas button won't get
you through the later races. You'll need to perfect Underground's driving
system-inside and out-to reach the top of the underground. Study these
techniques. Learn them well. And when push comes to shove, execute.

DraftingStraight
from the book of NASCAR, Underground implements drafting as a driving
technique. If you're not familiar with drafting, you're about to take a crash
course on the subject.

To draft, simply drive directly behind an opposing vehicle. Mimic their
turns, and if you're close enough, you'll earn a drafting style point bonus.
Style points aren't all that's there to earn, though. By drafting behind an
opponent, you'll be able to drive slightly faster as they create less air
resistance for your car. Using the drafting technique, you'll be able slingshot
around opposing drivers by getting a small boost in speed-especially useful in
extremely close drag races.

Drag RacingDrag
racing is a test of not only your car's raw power but also of your own skills
and timing. Shift gears at the wrong moment and you'll suffer a drop in speed
while your opponents boost onwards. There's a time for everything, and when it
comes to up-shifting properly that time is miniscule. Every vehicle is different
in regards to the perfect time to shift, but certain things remain constant.

As the RPMs of your engine increase, notice on the tachometer (on the left
side of the screen) that your needle changes colors. As the needle moves
upwards, it changes from blue, to green, to red, and the goal is to nail your
shift at the moment the needle turns green. If you shift when the needle is
blue, you'll execute a "Short Shift" which will slow you down, and if you wait
until the needle turns red you'll "Over Rev" your engine. If you shift
just before the needle turns from blue to green, you'll get a "Good
Shift" and if you shift while the needle is green you'll be awarded with a
"Perfect Shift," maximizing your acceleration to the next gear.

Drift CompetitionsIf you're having trouble breaking
one-hundred-thousand points in Underground's drift competitions, you're
not alone. There are, however, some techniques you can use to maximize your
score, and earn more than 10,000 points per drift.

First of all, take note of the point multiplier that appears on the left of
the screen. As you attain high scoring drifts, you'll increase the multiplier,
from an x2 multiplier up to the maximum x5. To get the x5 multiplier, you'll
need to learn to combine drifts, sliding from one turn to the next in one fluid
motion. However, this awesome multiplier isn't permanent, as it can often
decrease as your car slows down ("Too Slow") or collides with walls. Do keep
your multiplier up, do your best to avoid walls, even if it means cutting off a
big drift to save your butt.

Also, take note of the white-striped line that borders both sides of the
drift track. If you drift within the bounds of that border, you'll notice that
your score (at the top of the screen) will turn orange. While drifting within
the border, your points will be multiplied further. Combine this multiplier with
the previously mentioned one, and you can soon see drifts that exceed 20,000
points each.

Best CarsThere is no car that is definitively the "best"
car in all categories of racing, but each style of racing most certainly prefers
certain cars over others. Here is a run-down of which vehicles are the best in
each race type.